Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 30 November 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:50, 30 November 2021

Llywydd, the Member would do better not to read out his pre-prepared scripts for us, because then he would have had a chance to listen to the answers rather than reading out what he was going to say, whatever the answer happened to be. I'm afraid his questions today are tired and inaccurate. He hasn't read—or if he has read, he hasn't understood—the agreement that we have struck with Plaid Cymru. [Interruption.] I'm very happy to dare to explain to him that when he says things to me that are clearly inaccurate, it's part of my job here to help him to understand a bit better than he does the nature of that agreement. The agreement, as others who've taken more trouble will understand, is a limited and specific agreement on a range of very important matters that we have agreed with another party in the Chamber. There are many, many other things that Government does that are part of our programme for government that we will move ahead with, and any party in this Chamber will be entitled to take a contrary view on those matters should they choose to do so. That's the nature of this agreement—a specific Wales-only made and bespoke to Wales. 

On his final points, I've seen the older person commissioner's letter. I'm also pleased to say that I've received a letter from the Prime Minister in the last week in which he provides a series of commitments about the nature of the public inquiry that is intended; commitments to the involvement of devolved Governments in the appointment of the chair, and in the terms of reference for the inquiry; a commitment that the inquiry will respond positively to the points that I made to him in my letter when I set out what people in Wales would need to see in a UK inquiry. I received today as well a letter from the First Minister of Scotland, in which she outlines her support for the points made by me in my letter to the Prime Minister, and re-emphasises the need for the UK inquiry to commit to representing the issues that people in different parts of the United Kingdom will quite rightly want to see such an inquiry undertake.

So, I draw some confidence from the correspondence that I've received from the Prime Minister and from the First Minister of Scotland. There is still a great deal of work to do, Llywydd, to make sure that those commitments are delivered in practice, and that we do see an inquiry that has the best chance of providing the best possible answers that people in Wales quite rightly want to see raised and answered, but, for the time being, I think the assurances that the Prime Minister's letter sets out take us further down that path, and I continue to be committed to working alongside the UK Government on this matter so that people in Wales have an inquiry in which they can have proper confidence, and will give them answers that they quite rightly seek.